Holes

go pick up a 2 1/4 boring bite for your drill press.works great.

-- Roper - master of sawdust-

Draw an “x” on the board from corner to corner. That’s your center. Make yourself a table top to attach to your drill press table and put two fences, at 90 degrees of each other, so that the center of your “x” is centered under your 2 1/4” drill bit. You can also get a forstner bit that size.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

1. I to would lean towards my DP but with a hole saw or maybe a circle cuter.
2. I would also make a cradle (to fences 90% to each other on a peace of plywood) clamped to the table of your DP.

This would give you repeatablity

-- Do it right the first time. Becuase fixing it is a wast of time.

tenontim has it right about drawing the ‘X’ as long as your board is square to start with.

Drill the hole with whatever means you have.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Center it up. 2 1/4” Forstner. bbqKing

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

I did this using a plunge router and with a straight bit and collar. I had to make a 2 3/4” hole for clock face http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8229 and I only had a Forstner bit set to 2 1/8” maximum. What I did was to drill a 2” hole in a piece of 1/2” MDF with my Forstner bit. Then I used my 1/2” rabbet bit to cut a 1/2” rabbet in the 2” hole 3/8” deep. Then I used my flush cut bit to route the rabbet flush. That makes the hole 3” wide. I put a 1/2” spiral bit with a 3/4” OD collar (this gives you an 1/8” clearance between the collar and bit and a hole that is 1/4” smaller than your template) and after using the 2” Forstner bit to cut an initial hole in the project, I cut my 2 3/4” hole using the router.

I know that’s a whole lot of cutting but without that 2 3/4” Forstner, this got the job done. Brad, I hope this helped you either to get the job done or to warn you not to read too much into blogs. :-)

Good luck. Next time I was in WC in Franklin, TN, I picked up that big ole drill bit.

-- Makin' Sawdust!!!

FYI
Write,read,spell check, and then re-read…I violated my own rules. Thanks for the suggestions. My mistake when I wrote this post was that i misstated the problem. The hole i need to make has 2 3/8 Radius. The suggestions still apply I’m sure.

By the way “Beautiful walnut clock” sawdust

-- Brad,--"The way to eat an eliphant is one bite at a time"

Oh, yeah. That’s quite a bigger hole. Then, I would get out my homemade circle cutting jig for my router and make my template with it. I would cut out the hole in the MDF but don’t cut all the way through the MDF. I would drill a 1/2 inch hole near the cut part and finish making the template with a flush trim bit.

Thanks for the kudos on the clock.

-- Makin' Sawdust!!!

Ok, all of the above and here’s the link for your bit.
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/forsbit.htm

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

I bought a jig for the router to make larger diameter holes. Use a 1/4” spiral bit. Found it at Woodcraft. Works like a charm. The X will mark the spot to make a centered hole.

-- There are three kinds of people... those who can count, and those who can't

Good link Tenontim, if this is a one off project and the direction you are going to go (forestner), you do not need the carbide tipped one. I picked up one at my local woodcraft for around the same size. I think this is a common size for clock inserts. The nice thing is since it is a Forestner bit you can cut half circles with it also, and hog out material from larger circles….

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

If you have a drill press make a fence for for it with a stop clamped at one end. Once you get it right it will be the same every time.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Center it up. 2 3/8” Forstner. bbqKing

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville